Glucose syrup??

My colleagues are always bringing in snacks for the lunch table at work but generally these are cakes, biscuits and chocolates that I’m not allowed. Today I went to make myself a cup of tea and noticed some tasty looking dates..great, I thought, finally something I can nibble! Off course I looked at the ingredients first (a coeliac can never be too careful!) and they consisted of  ‘dates, glucose syrup and preservative E202’

Dates: I know these are safe

Preservative E202: This is the e number for Potassium Sorbate (the potassium salt of sorbate acid) used as a preservative and this is safe. (who knew that one day I’d know things like this?!?)

Glucose Syrup: I thought this was just another word for some form of sugar but I thought I’d google it just to be sure.

Wikipedia says: The more general term glucose syrup is often used synonymously with corn syrup, since the former is most commonly made from corn starch. Technically, glucose syrup is any liquid starch hydrolysate of mono, di, and higher saccharides and can be made from any sources of starch; wheat, rice and potatoes are the most common sources.

Celiac.com says that glucose syrup ‘Can utilize a gluten-containing grain or by-product in the manufacturing process, or as an ingredient’

This suggests glucose syrup normally does not contain gluten as it is most commonly made from corn syrup. However, there is the possibility that it could be made from wheat starch which does contain gluten…seriously? How am I to know whether a product containg glucose syrup contains gluten or not?

UPDATE: From more experienced celiac Laura to newbie celiac Laura. If glucose syrup is an ingredient in a product and it doesn’t say where the glucose syrup has been sourced from then I wouldn’t eat it without doing further research. I would check the company’s website for further information or contact their customer service people to find out more.